Is it Safe to Drink Water From a Garden Hose?

Is Drinking From a Garden Hose Safe

Hello and welcome back to yet another article at Turf Mechanic! In the scorching heat of the sun, you might feel tempted to drink the water coming out of your hose- and this might happen pretty often! However, Is it Safe to Drink Water From a Garden Hose? That’s exactly the question that we are going to discuss here at Turf Mechanic today!

In today’s article here at Turf Mechanic, we are going to take a look at this. We are going to take a look at the main factors you might want to consider when it comes to this. And of course, we are going to find an answer to, “Is it Safe to Drink Water From a Garden Hose?”

Important Factors to keep in mind when it comes to this question

Naturally, there are some things that would determine the answer. So, there are some factors that are of vital importance when it comes to deciding if it’s actually safe to drink water from a Garden Hose or not.

As you might guess, there are a whole lot of factors that you might want to consider. In fact, these are so many and so diverse that it’s pretty much impossible to list every single one of them. However, here are some of the ones that you might want to keep an eye out for:

1. The Water Supply

You need to know where the supply of the water is coming from. The hose might be perfectly fine, but if the water isn’t drinking quality, then you naturally should not drink it. So, the first thing that you might want to ensure is that the water you’re getting is drinking-quality water.

This is the first thing you might want to check out. Because, as long as you’re not sure if the water is worth drinking or not, there’s no way to judge the impact that the hose has in it.

2. The Material of the Hose

The second most important thing that you might want to consider is the material of the hose. The material of the hose refers to what it is made of, and this plays an important role. While some materials are fine for carrying edible water, some really aren’t.

So, you must make certain that your hose does not really liberate anything that gets mixed up with your water. If that happens, then you should not drink the water- and even if it doesn’t you must consider the other points.

3. Build-up inside the hose

Now, if you’ve been using the hose for a long time, there might be mineral buildup inside of it. In this case, it becomes absolutely necessary to actually get rid of it before you plan to drink the water that comes out of it. Is it Safe to Drink Water From a Garden Hose? Only when the mineral buildup does not hinder the quality of the water.

You can easily check this because this is usually visible to the naked eye. In case there is a mineral build-up, you might want to do your research on how to “descale” your hose. It is really important to get rid of this buildup before you actually drink the water coming out from the hose.

Drinking water from hoses isn’t usually safe unless you have a potable water hose. These types of hoses are easy to find in many lengths in most stores that sell outdoor garden equipment and accessories. For more tips like this see my full guide to buying a hose right here.

4. Do a Chemical Check

Now, the water might actually contain quite a few toxic materials. Since your health is of paramount importance, you must ensure that these are removed before you can even think of drinking the water that comes out of your hose. While letting the water run for a while removes most of it, some of it might still stay. So, keep the lead, antimony, bromine etc outside your body and do your research before drinking the water!

Quothing ThoughtCo:

Lead, BPA, and phthalates are used in garden hoses mainly to stabilize the plastics. The most common plastic is polyvinyl chloride, which may release toxic vinyl chloride. Antimony and bromine are components of flame retardant chemicals.

A study conducted by the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, M.I. (healthystuff.org), found lead levels exceeded the safety limits set by the Safe Water Drinking Act in 100% of the garden hoses they tested. A third of the hoses contained organotin, which disrupts the endocrine system. Half the hoses contained antimony, which is linked to liver, kidney, and other organ damage. All of the randomly selected hoses contained extremely high levels of phthalates, which can lower intelligence, damage the endocrine system, and cause behavioral changes.

Is the Quality of the Hoses Ensured for me?

Unfortunately, the Safe Water Drinking Act (SFDA) does not really ensure the quality of the Hoses. Hoses do not really come under their purview, which makes it even more important for you to be careful. You must keep in mind here that your health is on the line, and you must remain vigilant. Quoting Huffingtonpost:

Garden hoses are not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which monitors the nation’s public drinking supply. The study’s findings showed that levels of lead in water coming from garden hoses they tested exceeded legal safe levels 100 percent of the time.

But lead wasn’t the only dangerous material found in the water. According to the study, the water also contained plastic additives including phthalates —or plasticizers — and bisphenol A (BPA) that were “found to migrate out of the hose material into water contained in the hose.”

Is it Safe to Drink Water From a Garden Hose?

Now, as we have seen during the course of this article, there are quite a few things you might want to consider. Each of these things can actually render your water unsafe, and you must avoid it in any such case. If your water passes all of these tests, then it might be something you can drink.

But- and yes, there is a but – it is actually pretty hard to ensure that the water is safe. There are just so many factors that you must consider, and there are just so many things you need to be wary of. All of this hassle just for being able to drink water from your hose doesn’t really justify it.

So, it is recommended that you ideally don’t drink water from your hose. While it might be safe at the end of the day, it’s always better safe than sorry, right? So, the best idea would be to probably get the water from inside your house! Quoting Krem:

In 2016, the watchdog group Ecology Center tested 32 garden hoses from six national retailers, including The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Amazon. Researchers looked for chemicals, a few of which include lead, tin, PVC plastic and bromine. These are chemicals the Food and Drug Administration has linked to birth defects or illness in small children.

The results of the study was mixed. It found the flexible plastic of PVC hoses frequently contained elevated levels of lead, which has been proven unsafe for humans to ingest. The good news is you can buy garden hoses that are labeled as safe for drinking. Lead was not detected in the water from the drinking water safe hose tested. But they also found 30 percent of safe for drinking hoses had other chemicals that may harm children.

Based on the studies KREM 2 consulted, we cannot recommend drinking from the hose. It is best to take your thirst and a glass, to the tap inside!

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Finally, we have reached the end of today’s article. We really hope that you could learn at least something new from this article. Hopefully, you would be able to implement these ideas in real and actually make your lawn even more beautiful!

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